The Fourteenth Gordon Research Conference on Fertilization and the Activation of Development will provide a forum for presentation and discussion of new developments and ideas in this exciting, rapidly advancing field. This meeting will be held at the Holderness School, Plymouth, New Hampshire, July 29 - August 3, 2001. This conference has been held every two years since 1974. It is the only Gordon Research Conference concerned with the interaction of the male and the female gametes in the vital process of fertilization and activation of the fertilized egg to begin the process of embryo formation. It provides a venue for the interaction of biochemists, cell biologists, molecular biologists, physiologists, geneticists and biophysicists working in the field. This conference has been singularly successful in fostering collaborations between widely disparate experience and seniority and between research laboratories in this country and in Europe, Japan, Australia and Latin America. These collaborations have borne many fruitful results. There will be nine sessions in the conference, following the Gordon Research Conference format. Eight sessions will focus on: 1) Gametic competence; 2) Sperm interaction with the egg extracellular coat; 3) Spatial organization of gametic signaling; 4) Molecules mediating sperm-egg plasma membrane recognition and fusion; 5) Sperm initiation of egg activation; 6) Downstream events of egg activation; 7) Cortical granule dynamics; 8) Translational regulation during gametogenesis and early embryonic development. These sessions will include both scheduled speakers as well as selected short talks chosen from posters and/ or late breaking topics. These latter talks will particularly feature junior scientists, including postdoctoral tellers and students. In addition the applicant will have a key note speaker for the Tuesday evening session.